


Signal Fire

by sunaga



Category: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/M, Fic Exchange, Fire Emblem Exchange, Implied Relationships, Minor role reversal, Pre-Relationship, Unresolved Romantic Tension, background Ephraim/Lyon, capable!Eirika
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2019-07-04 18:12:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15846669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunaga/pseuds/sunaga
Summary: Seth is searching for Eirika at a dead man's request. Eirika is looking for Ephraim because he is all she has left. And Ephraim is determined to find the man who means so much to him. They'll all have to find each other if they are to find the cure Lyon entrusted to his friends.





	Signal Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aurumite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurumite/gifts).



> Written for aurumite for fe-exchange on LJ. I picked the "FE(8): Seth/Eirika+Ephraim, AU zombie apocalypse" prompt. Originally posted 1/12/13. Edited and posted to ao3 8/31/18.
> 
> The title is an oblique reference to Vienna Teng's Signal Fire, although the lyrics have no bearing on this fic.
> 
> A side note on editing this: I was surprised I'd written this in Seth's POV, and that his past as a soldier was an undercurrent.

**1.**

He finds her crouched over the truly-dead body of a zombie. She has something twisted around its neck and her hands are yanking it back towards her. She disentangles the chain, coiling it into her palm.

_She killed it_ , is the first thought that comes to mind. What he says is, "What are you _doing_?"

She replies evenly, "Do you have lighter fluid?" She's slightly breathless; the only sign at the effort it took to strangle the zombie.

"What?" He's startled by her calmness.

She looks sadly at the distended face laying on the ground. "It's the only way. If we leave him, he'll get buried somehow, and then he'll just rise again. It's in the soil -- you know that, don't you?"

He says he does, but like many others, he can't shake the belief it's more than _just_ the soil. In a large forest like this one, sparsely populated as it is, he can only imagine the number of bodies laying beneath the soil. Will bodies laying for hundreds of years come out the ground too?

He doesn't have lighter fluid, and he might be out of the military, but he remembers how to light a fire.

She watches on as the body burns, and he keeps watch of her. "Rest in peace," she says, fingering her bracelet.

"Why did you kill it?" Eirika has never been the kind to take life in any way.

"It's a mercy."

As Eirika keeps her vigil, not looking away until the body's gone, Seth remembers burying his team and Eirika playing with her brother with wooden swords.

* * *

 

**2.**

There're scratch marks on her arms and teeth marks on her shoulder. He makes it a point not to think of how she got them. He does, however, insist on washing the wound and taping it up.

She sits on the ground, legs extending into a patch of dandelions. He crouches to her side, his weight snapping branches beneath him. 

With her blouse off, he looks at her collarbones intently. He unsticks the bandage, and rubs the excess antiseptic off her skin with his fingertips. He sees an older set of marks and thinks how close they came to her throat. "Where did you get these?" he asks, face grim. He already knows the answer, but he can't stop himself.

"Zombie."

There's only a small window of time that zombies are actually a threat. If they rise right after they're buried, they have all the faculties they had before, but none of the control. They tended to get violent, and who is to say murder is the only evil they can commit? His body stills, thinking of what men do in war when reason leaves them. It's an obvious tell that even Eirika picks up on.

She turns her head and speaks over his bowed head. He can feel her breath on the crown of his head. "Don't tell me you're worried about the bite, are you? I'm up to date on my rabies shot."

She pauses as the tension doesn't go out of him. She tentatively adds, "I didn't know you were one of the people who believed it could be transmitted."

"I'm not." That's not what he was worried about, but there's no need to tell her that.

"Good. Because you have to believe it's in the ground if you're going to make it all the way with me."

He ignores that, and done tending to her, pulls back.

"Your father sent me," he states.

She picks up her shirt from the ground, shakes it out and puts it back on. She brushes leaves off the back of her legs.

"Did you hear me?"

Eirika stops.

"Do you know what that means? Your father is dead."

"I know."

"What? How could you -- "

"Seth, I knew he was dead the moment I heard the news. That's how people are; riots, disrest, chaos -- I knew he would die before leaving the town he worked so hard to build, even if they killed him. All that's left to me is my brother, and I will find him."

"How do you even know he's alive?"

She hands his satchel back to him. He remembers Franz, still a boy, who made it for him; how much his elder brother, Forde, loved painting until war took it from him.

"We're twins," is all she says.

* * *

 

**3.**

"I was looking for you. Your father told me you were at the leadership summit on the southern border." After a moment, he continues, "Your reputation precedes you." He looks expectantly at her, waiting for some comment on the way Eirika makes it a point to put down every zombie she comes across.

"I'm nothing like that," she demurs. "People have confused what I've done with what Sister Natasha's done in the south."

"The Healing Spirit?"

"She actually holds service for them, you know."

Shuddering at the thought of a Sister preaching to masses of bodies in different states of decay, he wonders who protects her. He steers the conversation back. "All I had to do was follow the rumors. Anyone could find you."

"Is it so bad to be found?"

"In your case, yes. People are desperate; they'll use you to get at your family's resources."

"Don't you think it'd be obvious I don't have access to them? Would I really be traveling this way otherwise?"

"How can you be so calm?"

She looks through the dense wood, and he leaves her alone knowing she's considering his question. At length she tells him, "I met a man. I think he and Sister Natasha would've gotten along. They both dedicated themselves to aiding wherever and however they could. He told me all of this is nothing we haven't seen before. It's just our past come back to us. It's our past. So there's nothing really to fear. Besides, you'll likely die of many other things, all the result of the living, not the zombies."

He stands there, amid the moss-covered trunks, confused. Then she adds, "I'm looking for Ephraim."

"What?"

He wants to ask her how she's made it this far alone, what she was even _thinking_. The camps both of them had been at weren't even on the same coast, let alone the same country.

"My brother was out east for a track and field training camp. It was isolated enough I think he survived and --"

She touches her bracelet. He waits for her to continue.

"And?"

She shakes her head. "And nothing."

When it's clear she's done speaking, he asks, "What's your plan?"

She flushes, but she doesn't look away from him. "I don't have one."

Seth wonders what luck has blessed Eirika, or what cunning she has hidden from him all these years.

* * *

 

**4.**

"How do you even know Ephraim will be going south?"

"That's where Lyon is. They weren't too far from each other; Ephraim planned on going to visit Lyon after camp was done."

"Eirika, it's not safe to travel there. You're better off heading in the opposite direction."

"Fleeing?" She meets his gaze, the fire throwing light across her face. "What good will that do Seth? It'll spread across the entire continent."

Conviction is good, but will hers hold? "Then let's leave and you can start over again. It's what you're father would've wanted."

"You don't understand, it's vital Ephraim and I reunite..." Her hands on her knees, she leaned forward. "The bracelets... Lyon, Ephraim, and I were always good friends; he gave these to us earlier this spring saying it would protect us and..." Biting her lip, she looked to him.

"What are you saying?"

Her eyes softened with sadness. "Lyon was interning at the lab that became Ground Zero. I wasn't surprised when I heard the news. Lyon had been sending me letters about his research... I'm sure Ephraim received similar messages."

"And what good do you think finding Lyon will do?"

Her eyes turn keen and sharp. "Everything. I will not stand by and flee when it is in my power to do something."

"And what will you do Eirika?" He turns the small rodent on their makeshift roast.

"He said there was a way to fix this, and that he'd entrusted it to Ephraim and I. But neither Ephraim nor I are as brilliant as Lyon. I wouldn't know." She twists her bracelet nervously.

"So you want to go into the heart of deadland."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because it's our only hope, Seth. Why else are you here with me?"

"Because I promised your father to protect you."

"Duty alone won't help you."

Her gaze gentles. "You didn't want to see," she says.

He takes her form in. There's a quiet surety to her body and eyes. "I'm coming with you."

"Ok," she replies.

He exhales. "Dinner's done. Best let it cool. Let me check your arms and neck. It's probably time to change them anyway, even if we ration medical supplies." She stands and sits at his side, rummaging through her oversized backpack for supplies.

* * *

**5.**

He charts them a course using a diagram made in the dirt with an annoyingly fragile twig. He draws a path that cuts east and then south. They have no map, but his memory is clear; she remarks on how much he recalls and how clearly. He does not say his life has depended on such things before.

She agrees with his plan, and then points to where they switch directions. "Is this because the water's bad directly south of here?" When people had discovered drowning victims did not rise, lakes and rivers began to fill with bodies. The drinking supply slowly dwindled.

He looks at her in surprise. "Exactly."

She saves him the embarrassment by saying nothing.

Later that night he ventures and offers, "Did you want to patrol?"

"No. You'd worry too much." She curls onto her side and goes to sleep, pulling her blanket up to her ears, her dismissal of the subject clear.

* * *

 

**6.**

Seth looks out on the landscape from their latest acquisition, a horse. No longer is it just endless forest, there are mountains in their horizon now. "There was a landslide here recently," he states.

Eirika draws up beside him on her mare, nodding in understanding. "I have your back," she says.

And Seth realizes that she does.

They soldier on, waiting for those lucky few who rise with threat.

* * *

**7.**

He comes upon a small pack of zombies. He tries to withdraw unnoticed, but their noses -- those of them who have them -- flare and he releases the safety on his gun. If there are zombies here, they must be near camp too. He has to make his way back to Eirika, but he needs to get himself free first. He shoots his way through, winding his way back to Eirika, with a deep bite to his side his only injury.

He finds her floating in a lake of bodies, her head bobbing on the surface. She sees him, and swims to shore, pushing aside bloated bodies and climbing over them to reach him.

"Sorry," she says, "I couldn't handle them all, so I took out as many as I could with the rifle. I hoped you'd be able to handle the rest." She picks up the rifle where she left it.

"You lured them here to drown."

"Yes. We're so close. I'm not going to die now."

"Let's get you out of the water and clean your wounds. Who knows what you can catch from this water?"

She declines, insisting they take out the bodies and burn them. Typical Eirika, worrying about the water supply instead of putting as much distance between them and the bodies that will soon rise. Because they have to wait for the wet bodies to dry, Seth builds the bodies left on land into a bonfire where the forest gives way to lakeshore. It wouldn't do to attract too much attention.

He hands her the lighter fluid. Only then does she acquiesce to see to her wounds.

Eirika doesn't hesitate to disrobe, and Seth no longer averts his eyes. It's the camaraderie of shared horror, stolen laughter, small smiles, and fleeting, reassuring touches. She returns the favor to the tear in his side, not needing his guidance, remembering from his own treatment of her.

* * *

 

**8.**

He hears her voice across the distance, her meaning unintelligible. He runs back to find her, hand on the handle of an ax that's buried in the chest of a zombie.

Her breathing shakes and he can see everything on her face, but then she shutters that away. She pulls the blade out with the suck of wet flesh.

He waits until she gently leans the handle against a sturdy trunk before tossing her the lighter fluid.

"Eirika!"

Seth raises his gun, wondering what living life he'll have to take now. He's stunned to see Ephraim stumbling out the woods with a _javelin_ in his hand.

Eirika looks between the two of them.

To Ephraim she says, "I tried to tell you I was traveling with Seth and he was checking out the surroundings."

To Seth she says, "He found me." There is a beatific smile on her face.

Ephraim answers Seth's unspoken question. "I followed the signal fires you left." And suddenly, Seth understands Eirika's unrelenting insistence they burn the zombies even when it was dangerous. "That's how we used to communicate when she went to the girls' summer camp across the river from the boys'." Ephraim takes her hand, not minding the muck and blood. "I missed you sister."

* * *

 

**9.**

"It's our mistake. We have to fix it. What else can we do?"

"You said it was our past come to haunt us. How can this help?"

Although Seth doesn't understand how that could be coming to an agreement, he knows they've come to one; they share one of those intimate looks they've always shared, thinking it a secret when everyone really knew. Ephraim grunts. "We promised Lyon."

Eirika inclines her head in acknowledgement. "And because to end one is to end the other. Things will change, for better or for worse because of this. Who is to say we will not be changed for the better?"

Ephraim turns to Seth. "Will you come with us?"

"I'll follow wherever you lead." He looks at Eirika and knows not if he replies to Ephraim or her.

"Good," Ephraim says, and Eirika grins. She takes both their hands.

* * *

 

**10.**

With three people, they can travel more safely. On horseback -- Ephraim on the mare and Eirika and Seth sharing the gelding -- and armed with guns, they have the advantage. They get on the now-empty freeway, an easier trek than through the wild. All the cars have long since gone, leaving only a few abandoned heaps on the roadside.

Eirika moves against him, turning to look at him from the corner of her eye. "Are you still with us?" she asks. She sounds young -- she sounds her age.

He looks down at her profile, the edge of her iris. "Of course."

"I don't want you staying with us just because you promised father. You've been invaluable to me, but Ephraim and I could make do if we had to. It could be dangerous, and I -- I don't want you to be harmed out of duty."

Seth takes a deep breath and lets it go. His breath stirring the baby hairs near her hairline.

"Seth?"

He takes his free hand, the one not holding the reins, and loops it beneath her arm and cups the shoulder bite that's just about healed. Soon, there'll be no more reason to share that quiet intimacy with her.

Apparently he is quiet for too long, because she asks if his side is bothering him. Perhaps their time together isn't quite at its end.

"Don't worry about that," he says in reply to both her questions.

Through the movement of her collarbone, he can feel the breath she takes. He imagines her ribcage expanding full of air. His fingers curl out of reflex, but then he drops his hand away.

Ephraim looks at the two of them, at Seth's arm holding her in the saddle, even though she's a capable rider. Eirika glares back, daring him to say anything. Ephraim nods his head in some kind of understanding.

"Let's go," she says.

They ride on into the heart of deadland, where the window for violent zombies is at its widest, and where Ephraim and Eirika believe their childhood friend awaits on the sixth floor of the National Health Building.

**Author's Note:**

> Misc notes:  
> I always imagined Lyon was interning for the Department of Public Health and well. When you meddle with science, Things Happen, like a Zombie Apocalypse. Perhaps an experiment to have the soil yield better crops, given Grado was facing an impending food shortage. When the twins find him, he's half-mad quoting Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_. The bracelets, of course, have key data embedded in them. This leads them to Knoll to decipher, who Eirika had met previously (and was alluded to in the fic).
> 
> Ephraim notices the intimate way Eirika cares to Seth's side.
> 
> It would all end happily too.
> 
> a pre-fic outtake when Eirika first hears the zombie apocalypse news:  
>  _Summer is loud in her ears. Its heat is sticky on the back of her neck, and Eirika wishes she'd pulled her hair back._
> 
> _"Miss Eirika?"_
> 
> _She looks out the window, but can't see anything past the sun in the glass._
> 
> _"Miss Eirika?"_
> 
> _She turns her chin in the palm of her hand. "Mr. Saleh, can you turn on the news?"_


End file.
